The heritage of Brexit: Roles of the past in the construction of political identities through social media

Chiara Bonacchi,Mark Altaweel,Marta Krzyzanska

doi:10.1177/1469605318759713

Abstract

This article assesses the role of the pre-modern past in the construction of political identities relating to the UK’s membership in the European Union by examining how materials and ideas from Iron Age to Early Medieval Britain and Europe were leveraged by those who discussed the topic of Brexit in over 1.4 million messages published in dedicated Facebook pages. Through a combination of data-intensive and qualitative investigations of textual data, we identify the ‘heritages’ invoked in support of pro- or anti-Brexit sentiments. We show how these heritages are centred around myths of origins, resistance and collapse that incorporate tensions and binary divisions . We highlight the strong influence of past expert practices in shaping such deeply entrenched dualistic thinking and reflect over the longue durée agency of heritage expertise. This is the first systematic study of public perceptions and experience of the past in contemporary society undertaken through digital heritage research fuelled by big data. As such, the article contributes novel methodological approaches and substantially advances theory in cultural heritage studies. It is also the first published work to analyse the role of heritage in the construction of political identities in relation to Brexit via extensive social research.

Highlights

Research aimsOn 23 June 2016, British citizens were called to cast their vote on the subject of the UK’s membership in the European Union (EU) through a referendum that had a remarkable turnout of 72 per cent of the total electorate (Electoral Commission, 2016; see Gardner, 2017; Schlanger, 2017 for more discussion on the context of the referendum and its impact on higher education and the heritage sector)
We have been confronted with the need to delve in ‘big data’ using automated approaches in order to identify Facebook pages about Brexit, but the information contained in these pages and featuring ideas about the past did not possess some of the features described by Kitchin (2013, see above)
The analysis undertaken in this paper has shown the role of discourse around the pre-Roman, Roman and post-Roman world in the making of political identities related to Brexit and the centrality of notions of imperialism in this context

Summary

Introduction

On 23 June 2016, British citizens were called to cast their vote on the subject of the UK’s membership in the European Union (EU) through a referendum that had a remarkable turnout of 72 per cent of the total electorate (Electoral Commission, 2016; see Gardner, 2017; Schlanger, 2017 for more discussion on the context of the referendum and its impact on higher education and the heritage sector) This voting exercise became the vehicle through which, amongst other things, people expressed their political identities and crafted ‘hoped for’ political futures (Marichal, 2013). We argue, the pre-modern heritages of Europe should be the subject of further investigation, as they permeate many aspects of our lives (see Alexander et al, 2012; Hall, 2010; Hingley, 2015, 2018 to name but a few examples) and constitute the origin of myth-making practices that are diffused within European territories and often extend to much of the contemporary Western world

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Conclusion